Journal #24: Unnecesary Fear

Everyone remembers those times when they were five years old, and at night their mom and dad tuck them in bed and say good night. They just start to close their eyes when they hear a weird scraping noise. They hide under the covers until they cannot stand it anymore and run to their parents, who come in, say it is only a tree branch, and tuck them back in bed. Then they see a dark shape protruding out of their closet. What could it be? Their minds immediately go to the thought of the monster that comes and eats little kids at night! (What are kids learning in schools these days that cause them to resort to that particular thought?) They again hide under the covers, and they start to call for mom and dad, but they know if they do so, they will get in trouble. They stop, peer from outside the covers. They grab a plastic golf club sitting next to their bed. (Why there is a plastic golf club there, I do not know. There just is.) They slowly creep to the closet, and suddenly they................. Beat down on the dark shape yelling, "Die, monster, die!" (Such violence). The parents, disturbed by the yelling, run to their room, turn on the lights, and surprisingly find an embarrassed little kid, holding a plastic golf club above his head, standing next to some newly beaten bunny slippers, not a monster.

Even if this is not exactly how your story turned out, it still probably follows the same idea. That idea is that we let our fear get into our head distorting what we see. The little kid saw a monster, not bunny slippers. However, when the lights were turned on, he realized that it was indeed his pink bunny slippers, not a monster. Hopefully now, as we are older, we do not beat up slippers, thinking they are monsters, but we do let fear control our emotions at times. For example, I use to be afraid of the dark because I thought that some hungry animal would attack me. Whenever it was dark outside, I would stay inside, and if I did go out, I clung to the closest person. I soon realized this fear was ridiculous because there were no hungry animals big enough or aggressive enough to attack me in the dark. Everyone has different fears, but the bottom line is that we cannot let them get into our heads and control us.